Running an empty trailer with the front axle chained up

WHY?

You need all the braking you can get. Otherwise your trailer becomes a bully shoving YOU off the road.

Tow the thing like you always have. Leave that trailer alone to run on the pavement just like it's designed to do empty or loaded.

 

I would do like you said, remove the front tires and chain up the axle and roll.

 

Why are you taking the tires off? What are "slippery springs"? I tell ya', sounds like a big hassle. I agree with x1, just run it.

 

I brought a stolen trailer back from Philly once. It was a brand new Fontaine 45-75' stretch with 4 baldies, 1 with a railroad spike in it. There was a tire shop a little ways from where I picked it up(I believe they were the thieves, no proof), they removed the tire with the spike in it and I chained the axle. Brought it back with 3 baldies. That's how we rolled back in the 80's. Passed a couple of staties on I-195E, they never gave me a second glance.

 

I appreciate that. I was beginning to wonder.

That voice text is interesting. No more typing.

I'll partially meet you on the original question, PROVIDED your trailer has a properly installed airlift device for a axle.

Otherwise I'd just run it. There have been occasionally a trailer or a dump truck that has a suspension built so that when it's empty one of the two axles are coming up and stay up. Those are not the trailers I worry about here.

If you have a trailer that you feel the need to chain up a axle or otherwise force it to come up into the air above the pavement, that seems like a awful lot of work for little gain.

I don't have anything else to offer, it would just be a broken record on my end repeating.

 

A friend of mine was put out of service by the DOT for pulling with one axle chained as described by the original post. Run it as designed, you may need the braking power of both axles.

 

I see nothing wrong with it. Heck, my last job we had 53' vans that did this automatically via air. When it weighed over x pounds it would drop the second axle, otherwise the axle would be lifted.